John Simatovich Elementary School

Good afternoon, UTSC Families,

We are excited to share some good news! All UTSC school buildings now have power, and we are planning to welcome our students back for their first day of school on Monday, August 17! This is our plan as of today. Should anything unforeseen occur that would require us to make a change, we will notify families immediately. We wanted to provide this update as soon as possible so that families have time to prepare and plan their schedules for the week ahead. In addition, the SELF School and Porter County Career Center will also be open and welcoming students back on Monday.

On Monday, regular bus transportation will be provided, and our school kitchens will be operating as usual to serve both breakfast and lunch. If any changes to our planned lunch menus are necessary, families will be notified in advance. As with any first day of school, we also ask for your patience with bus transportation. Pick-up and drop-off times may vary as our drivers become familiar with their routes, avoid closed streets and take the extra time necessary to make student safety our highest priority. We greatly appreciate your patience and support of our bus drivers as we begin the school year. I would also like to thank our custodial, maintenance, technology and main office teams who will continue working to make sure our buildings are ready for students on Monday. As our buildings have gradually come back online and power has been restored, these teams have worked incredibly hard to get everything up and running. We are very grateful for their efforts.

While we are returning to school on Monday, we are also aware that many of our families are still without power. We know that some families are also dealing with damage to their homes, clean-up, and other challenges resulting from the storms. We understand that every family's circumstances are different and that you will need to make the decision that is best for your children and your situation. If your child is unable to attend on Monday, or on any subsequent day due to your family's circumstances, please contact your child's school office as you normally would to report the absence.

Our thoughts continue to be with all of our families who remain without power or are dealing with storm-related damage and other challenges. Please reach out to your child's building principal if there is any support or resources our schools can provide. We are a strong school community, and we want to support our Bearcat families however we can.

All school offices will be open on Monday and your building principal will reach out to families with building specific information updates. At this time, we continue to be without phone service throughout the district. We will update families when our phone service has been restored. In the meantime, please use the email addresses below if you need to contact your child's school:

John Simatovich Elementary (JSE)
Kristen Hankins, Principal — khankins@union.k12.in.us
Carey Minton, Secretary — cminton@union.k12.in.us

Union Center Elementary (UCE)
Jenna Klein, Principal — jklein@union.k12.in.us
Meredith Roberts, Secretary — mroberts@union.k12.in.us

Union Township Middle School (UTMS)
Kyle Hanaway, Principal — khanaway@union.k12.in.us
Alexis Kruszka, Secretary — akruszka@union.k12.in.us

Wheeler High School (WHS)
Ryan Kruszka, Principal — rkruszka@union.k12.in.us
Amanda Parrish, Secretary — aparrish@union.k12.in.us

Thank you for your patience, flexibility, and understanding throughout the past several days. We know this is not the start to the school year that any of us anticipated, and we know Monday's first day may look and feel different for many of our families. But inside our schoolhouses, our teachers and staff are excited and ready to welcome our Preschoolers through Seniors! They will be there with smiles, ready to provide some normalcy, reconnect with our Bearcats, and begin another great school year together. We've got this!

With Bearcat LOVE,

Leigh Barnes

Superintendent